


The Pretender

by KatieNuss



Series: For A Moment [6]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Mentions of the team - Freeform, mentions of Bruce Wayne - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-10 07:23:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12907017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatieNuss/pseuds/KatieNuss
Summary: Several years after leaving the Team, Dick is in a good place. He's found purpose as Renegade and made peace with the changes in his life. But he soon makes a discovery that he can't ignore.AU in which, after suffering torture and breaking at the hands of the Light, Dick runs away from his family and his team due to shame. Cheshire takes him under her wing and teaches him another way to live.





	1. The Pretender

It’s been two and a half years, since he walked, or ran away from his life to start a new one.

Two and a half years later, and he sleeps better than he ever thought he’d be able to. At seventeen, life is…good.

He and Jade don’t work together as often, now, and he often goes off on his own to do his own jobs, though he’s gotten a bit more selective about it.

He takes contracts against murderers, child molesters, rapists. He kills those who deserve to die. As a result, some call him the Poor Man’s Assassin, because he doesn’t work for much, sometimes for nothing at all. He does revenge killings, helps people like Peter Raegan and Jade’s mother. And he can live with that.

When he’s strapped for cash he’ll take on one of those corporate espionage jobs, and the money from that, plus the potential blackmail keeps him going for a long time.

Life is good, mostly.

He and most of his friends have had fallings out by now. Wally can’t stand what he’s become; M’gann can’t look him in the eye. Most of them just don’t understand.

And he understands that, because he doesn’t know if _he’d_ understand it—if someone he was so close to, thought of as a brother turned around and started killing people for money. But again, it’s not all about the money. He’s cleaning up the trash that the heroes of the world don’t, or won’t.

He’s still working for the greater good, they just don’t see that.

Artemis does, he thinks.

To a point.

She won’t speak to him regularly, but she doesn’t treat him like a stranger, like he’s the enemy, when they cross paths. She accepts that some people just view the world differently, and he’s glad for that. She, Roy and Jade are the only ones who haven’t given up on him.

Roy doesn’t agree with his life choices, just like he doesn’t agree with Jade’s. But he sees the person beyond the reputation, and beyond the persona, he knows Dick is still in there, he’s just different. He’s grown up, he’s changed. Roy knows what it’s like to need to be someone new, someone different than who you were. He knows that it’s the only way to survive.

And Jade, well. Dick might even go so far as to say she’s proud of him. She should be—he is who he is partly because of her. She took him in, god only knows why, and she gave him purpose, she gave him his _dignity_ back. She didn’t try to fix him, didn’t treat him like a cornered animal that she was worried would bite her. She treats him like she treats everyone else.

Jade doesn’t care who you were, she cares about who you _are_.

He loves that about her.

Bruce…he doesn’t really think about Bruce.

Bruce stopped looking for him. Dick isn’t sure how much Bruce knows, but the man seems to think he knows enough. Even though they haven’t been in contact since before everything happened, the message that Dick isn’t welcome home has been coming through loud and clear.

It’s ironic, he thinks. That of all the people he knew, that he befriended over the years, the dozens of heroes he used to consider family, all he has left is two Arrows and an Assassin. He used to believe so adamantly that those friends, that family; they could overlook your flaws no matter what. And he supposes that’s still true, the only difference is that he knows who his real friends _are_ , now.

He blows out a breath, and rolls his shoulders. He’s been sitting on this rooftop in Seattle for almost an hour, he’s unnecessarily early to his meet and greet with Roy and Jade. Apparently Jade spends a lot of her time here, now.

Dick may have gotten better, but Roy has been having some problems. Initially after he found out about that whole being a clone thing, which is infinitely messed up, Roy had been fine. Fucked up, but still Roy. But after nothing but failures in trying to find the _original_ Roy Harper, he’d secluded himself to somewhere even Dick couldn’t reach him—and Dick had been there. He knows what it’s like when the Light comes after you in ways you never expected. He knows how it is to have your whole life ripped out from under you and crumpled up like it was junk mail that no one will ever read.

But he’s getting better now; Jade’s been kicking his ass right out of that slump, getting him back on track. They still haven’t found the original Roy Harper, the first Speedy, and according to intel, everyone else has given up on finding the kid, which Dick, and probably Roy, is not thrilled about. That kid deserves to be found, to be given his life back, if at all possible.

But still, it’s good to know that Roy is getting it together again.

He pulls back his cowl, and wipes away the sweat that was beading on his forehead beneath it. The breeze feels amazing, and he smiles a little. It’s not raining—which he gathers is unusual for the area—and there’s not a cloud in the sky; just the moon and stars and warm summer breezes.

This is his favorite kind of night.

“Hello, Dickie.” Jade purrs behind him, and his smile explodes into a grin as he gets to his feet and turns to her.

“Hey Jade,” he throws his arms around her, a gesture she is not the least bit pleased with, ever, but that she’s given up fighting. It took him a long time to get up the courage to hug her, even longer to _want_ to, and when she hadn’t killed him on the spot, he figured she wasn’t as opposed to it as she’d like him to believe.

“Off.” She doesn’t shove him, but he steps back anyway at the command, still grinning. She looks as dangerous and as striking as ever, though she’s not dressed in her Cheshire get-up, tonight. Just shorts, a t-shirt and a dirty trucker hat. Dick’s not sure what about those appeal to her so much, but, to each their own.

Roy is beside her, also in civvies. Something like joy swells in his chest.

He’s thinner than Dick’s seen him in a long time, and he hasn’t shaved in a while, but he’s smirking at Dick, which he takes as a good sign. “You totally look like Lucky Leprechaun with that beard, dude.”

The smirk turns into a frown, maybe even a glare, and Dick grins a little wider. “Shut up Wonder Bread.” He throws an arm around Dick’s neck and pulls him into a playful half-nelson. Definitely a good sign.

Dick laughs, and hugs Roy, who returns it, unlike Jade did. “You look good, man,”

“Don’t lie to me, kid I look like shit.” Roy scoffs, stepping back out of the hug, but he’s got that smirk back on his face. Dick used to believe (childishly, he’ll admit) that Roy was practically invincible. Unflappable. _Whelmed_. Seeing him now, he can almost start to believe it again. “I haven’t exactly been pumping iron lately.”

“Yes,” Jade sighs. “And what a shame that is,” she gives Roy a disappointed up-down, and he rolls his eyes at her. Dick hides a snicker behind his hand.

“Like you could do better than me.” He raises an eyebrow and gives her an unamused look, hands on his hips in a defiant stance. Some of that pride is peeking through.

“Still, you look good,” Dick repeats, happily squashing their little moment. Their relationship, as Dick had come to see after that initial kiss in his and Jade’s motel room a few years back, was mostly arguing, and screaming and yelling. As a result, that tended to mean a lot of passionate apologies, some of which he’d had the misfortune of hearing through thin walls.

But he’s not going to think about that.

“Thanks, kid. You look pretty good yourself.” Roy appraised his appearance for the first time, and it’s true.

Dick has put on a fair amount of muscle and grown several inches the last few years. The baby fat that had filled out his cheeks during his preteen years had melted away and left a chiseled face that reminds him of his father—something he takes great pride in. He looks like a man, and not like a broken child.

He’s himself—just better.

“Thanks, Roy.” He nods at the older man, and then he turns to Jade. “So, why’re you guys so underdressed?” he gestures to himself, his body covered in a sleek black suit with a red bird splayed across his chest. Renegade looks good on him, he can’t deny that.

“I thought we could just stay in and eat pizza.” Roy shrugs, and Jade rolls her eyes in exasperation.

“Yes, pizza and a movie. My favorite of activities.” The enthusiasm in her voice is clearly false, but Dick chooses to ignore that and instead begins listing off movies he’d be interested in seeing. It’s been a while since he’s gone to a theatre, or even popped in a DVD.

“I was thinking we could power through some of the Fast and Furious movies, there’s a few new ones out since our last marathon.” Roy grins, not bothering to try and silence Dick before speaking, it is a hopeless cause. Jade looks less than impressed by the idea, but Dick is over the moon.

“Perfect!” Dick claps his hands a few times, and they agree on a plan for the rest of their evening.

Roy’s apartment is…well, it’s trashed. It’s dingy. The drywall is totally shot. But, it’s still nicer than some of the places Dick has stayed, so he can’t really complain. Plus, the shower has hot water.

After scrubbing his skin raw in a nightly ritual he’s never been able to quit, he walks out into the main living space in a towel, figuring he’ll dry out a bit before getting dressed. It’s humid, and he doesn’t like feeling like his clothes are sticking to him.

Absent mindedly, he rubs at some of the scars on his torso while he snoops around Roy’s things. They don’t bother him, not like they used to. Over time, he’s stopped seeing them as a reminder of what happened to him, and more as a reminder of how far he’s come.

“Ooh,” Roy’s laptop is only partially closed on the counter, and it’s been a while since Dick’s had internet access. He doesn’t look at anything in particular, mostly just news articles about his former friends. Just because they had shunned him, doesn’t mean he isn’t curious about their well-being. He may not mean anything to them, but he has always been sentimental.

Everyone seems to be doing well, and he gives a warm smile, because it’s good that they’re doing well. He hasn’t been able to check up on them in a few months, and he laughs as he scrolls through Wally’s Facebook page. It’s the best one for photographs, and there are plenty of them. Wally and Artemis have been dating since just after Dick ran off, and they’re still going at it.

He and Artemis are at Stanford University together, and it looks like Wally hasn’t stopped taking pictures since. There’s pictures of him and his roommate, who looks like a nice enough guy. He comments often, and based on that he has a good sense of humor, which is totally necessary when dealing with Wally.

Artemis has found herself a couple of friends, too, and they’re in almost all of her pictures. He thinks she’s picked up a sport, but he can’t be sure, because she never says anything specific about it.

Conner and M’gann are still together, too and they’re attending some college or another, he thinks. M’gann never shows the name of the school, though Dick assumes it’s in the northeast.

Kaldur doesn’t have a Facebook page, but he does filter into the pictures that everyone else posts, especially Conner’s. They’ve gotten close, and Dick feels a small twinge of jealousy. But he’s not going to entertain the feeling.

Next he looks at Babs’ page, and this is the one that hurts him the most, because as a kid he was always at least half in love with the Commissioner’s daughter. Still is he supposes. He’d never met anyone quite like her, and he doesn’t expect to ever again. She’s got a lot of pictures with Bette, who is some kind of Tennis champion now? Good for her. Dick had always found Bette to be a bit… obsessive when he’d known her, so it’s nice to see her putting that incredible focus to good use.

After he internet stalks Babs for a little while, he closes Facebook and looks at the digital clock in the corner of the screen. “Taking their sweet time.” He frowns, because they’re probably bickering about the exact toppings they want on the pizza—he’s seen Roy and Jade argue for a solid 45 minutes about what show to watch, so this isn’t really a surprise, but he’s hungry, so. He can complain a little.

He groans and stretches his arms over his head, and it feels nice to be in Roy’s apartment, because although it’s a little _under_ whelming, he actually feels like he can relax, here. And that means so much more to him than it did when he was a kid.

He turns his attention to the internet as a whole, and starts looking through articles on the Justice League, and the members he was familiar with. And other than the garbage put out by G. Gordon Godfrey, most of the press is positive.

He smiles again.

And then he sees… _that_.

And his smile falls, and his heart stops beating, or maybe starts beating too fast, he’s not sure.

_Does Batman Have a New Partner in Gotham?_

Reading that headline feels like someone is stabbing him in the chest. All the happy, warm fuzzy feelings that came with seeing Roy for the first time in months and seeing Jade again and looking at how well everyone he used to know is doing disappears and he’s angry.

How could he? How could he _do_ this?

And there’s a picture. And it’s of Batman and of _Robin_ but _Dick_ isn’t in the picture. There’s someone else. There’s some _kid_ running around calling himself Robin, running around _pretending_ that he’s Robin.

Like he deserves it, like that name doesn’t belong to _Dick_.

That _pretender_ , that little boy is playing _dress-up_ in Dick’s clothes, running around with _his_ name living _his_ life.

And Bruce is LETTING him!

And before he can decide if he’s being rational, he’s dressed as Renegade again, and he’s on the job.

The pretender is his target.

And when Roy and Jade return with pizza, he’s not there waiting for them.


	2. Bullshit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason finally comes face to face with his predecessor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beginning is Dick's POV, and then it switches to Jason, just in case it isn't clear. :)

He’s in Gotham, and his skin is on fire because he knows that if Bruce, _Batman_ realizes he’s in the city, he’s going to be locked up in an eight by ten cell with some guy named Bruno for the rest of his life. Dick’s too pretty for prison.

So he’s being cautious not to be seen or noticed or recorded on any cameras if he can help it. It had taken some time to get to Gotham, he doesn’t have the benefit of Zeta tubes anymore. He’d been locked out of the system years ago. No, he’d conned his way onto a redeye from Seattle, and the whole way here, through the flight and then car ride into Gotham, all he thought about was The Pretender. He wants that _kid_. He wants him strung up by his neck. He wants to make an example of him and _show_ Bruce that Robin is not his to give away.

If he wants to replace Dick? Fine. Replace him. Find some second rate partner and dress him up in tights and call him Kid Bat or Batboy or something. It would sting. It would hurt like hell, actually. Dick would be devastated because even though his relationship with Bruce is non-existent, the relationship they used to have had once meant everything to Dick.

And Bruce might as well have thrown that relationship on the ground and snuffed it out with his boot like a half smoked cigarette.

He’s sitting on the head of a gargoyle, high above the streets of Gotham only now he’s not dressed in his Robin uniform, he’s Renegade, and he’s watching as this little replacement Bruce has found paces back and forth on the rooftop across the street.

The little rat looks impatient as he waits at the rendezvous point for Batman. Dick remembers that feeling, being too high on his own adrenaline to keep still while waiting for his former mentor. He remembers what it felt like to have that R on his chest.

It was the complete opposite of how he feels right now.

It’s quick.

He lands behind The Pretender, and with a blow dart he’d gotten from Cheshire a few months back, he drugs his target, and the boy crumples like paper onto the rooftop. He didn’t even know what hit him.

Dick thinks maybe that’s the worst part, the little rat didn’t even know what hit him. He had no idea that Dick, _Renegade_ , a dangerous and wanted assassin had walked up behind him, and then he’d been knocked unconscious.

Dick would have noticed.

* * *

When Jason wakes up, it’s sudden and his lungs burn when he sucks a breath in through his teeth. He thinks at first maybe Bats is messing with him, that this is some kind of test (which admittedly he has probably failed, at this point) but he realizes he’s tied to a chair, and that just doesn’t seem like Batman’s M.O.

Bats would probably have dangled him above a tank of sharks or something stupid.

Nah, this seemed way to low maintenance, way too conventional a kidnapping to be Bats’ thing.

He flicks his pointer to extend the super tiny knife in the finger of his glove, but then realizes _oh wait_ , he’s not wearing gloves. Or boots for that matter.

What kind of freak takes someone’s _shoes_?

Although if he were kidnapping a cape, he’d probably take their shoes too. He knows the kinds of things he has in his boots, he can only imagine what Bats would keep in his.

Not air fresheners, he knows that much. That guy’s feet _reek_.

After a little more wiggling around he realizes he’s also missing his belt, again smart on the kidnapper’s part. His cape is gone, and…. _oh, shit_.

His _mask_ his fucking _mask_ is gone and aw man Bats is gonna _kill_ him.

He feels something cold and metal on his throat and immediately stills, and for the first time since waking up he thinks that he might actually be in trouble, here.

“Not especially observant, are you.”

He…feels like he should recognize that voice. “Well you _did_ turn the lights off.” His voice is appropriately sassy, he thinks.

“You know, I’d say I’m disappointed in you, but...” The guy sighs, but it isn’t exasperated, it’s shaky, like he’s trying to keep his shit together, and again Jason thinks that he might really be in trouble. If this guy is barely keeping it together, anything Jason does could set him off and _bye-bye birdie_. “That just seems too cliché.”

“Maybe a little.” He agrees, very, very aware of the sharp thing on his throat.

“Do you even know how to use this thing?” the metal leaves his skin—thank _god_ , he was starting to get this tickle in his nose like he might sneeze and being the aggressive sneezer he is, he would’ve thrown his neck right into that thing and gotten his throat cut—and a black gloved hand holds one of his bird-a-rangs in front of his face.

Okay, look. Jason knows he’s like, _semi_ new to the hero game, but he can’t help but be kinda pissed that this guy— _whoever_ he is—is questioning his ability to do his _fucking job_. _Obviously_ he knows how to use a bird-a-rang. He’s the damn _bird_ in this room isn’t he?

His actual answer is decidedly less hostile because he doesn’t exactly have the upper hand here, and well, he’s not _that_ dumb, no matter what anyone seems to think. “Duh.”

The guy snorts. “Kind of a smart ass, aren’t you.” Jason flinches at the unexpected and unnecessarily hard smack to the back if his head. He feels this guy holding back, and he can’t help it, his stomach flips.

This guy has something in mind for Jason, and from the vibes he’s getting it’s gonna _suck_.

“I uh, I’ve heard that yeah.” He answers, because the longer this conversation lasts the longer Bats has to track the bug that’s imbedded in the seam of his shirt. There’s a lot of breathing going on behind him, and he knows for sure that this guy is trying to contain himself. Something about how erratic it sounds…

He just hopes Batman gets here soon.

“So…why’d you kidnap me?” Might as well ask, he’s been wondering. “I mean, you know I’m _Robin_ , right?”

Another snort.

“And, well Bats is gonna be pissed when he gets here.” He doesn’t like using Batman as a threat. He himself is pretty fucking threatening. He doesn’t need people—especially psychos like this guy—thinking the scariest part of him is his pointy eared shadow. But…given that he’s tied to a chair…it seems appropriate for the situation.

“He’s not coming for you.”

“You’ve heard of _Batman_ and Robin, right? The Dynamic _Duo_? As in, where there is Robin there is _Batman_? Believe me, he’s coming.” Jason almost rolls his eyes. Who the hell is this guy kidding? Bats is gonna burst through a window any second and wipe the floor with him. Batman is like, _insanely_ protective. Annoyingly so. He always knows where Jason is, whether he’s in the tights or not. After what’d happened to the first Robin (not that anyone would tell him exactly what _had_ happened to him) Jason is on a short leash.

Got a date with that hot chick from his English class? Bruce knew where he was when he tried –and failed—to get a little under-the-shirt-over-the-bra action.

Going to see a movie? Bruce knows exactly where and when.

Gotta take a leak? Bruce knows how many shakes.

The man is _everywhere_.

There is something in front of his face again, small, thin, and lacking the teeny tiny blinking light that it usually has.

His transmitter.

Okay, now he’s kind of concerned.

“No one is coming for you.”

“Who are you?” He demands, clenching and unclenching his fists where they’re restrained behind him.

“You probably wouldn’t know if I told you.” There’s a seething bitterness in the voice. “But, I know who you are.”

“Yeah, _Robin_. The guy you were _dumb_ enough to snatch.” The smack to his head is harder this time and he bites his tongue by mistake. He always runs his mouth when he’s nervous, it’s a bad habit.

“Jason Peter Todd. Recently fourteen, orphaned by your dead beat, low life criminal father, and your junkie mother. You lived on the streets for what, two years? And then you were adopted by Bruce Wayne out of the blue. A little after that, probably not even three months, you start wearing spandex and running around Gotham like you own the place.”

Jason doesn’t answer. This guy knows who he is. And it’s not something like he just pulled off the Robin mask and was like _oh! It’s that kid Bruce Wayne just got, the one from the gossip mags._ No, this guy _knows_ about him. Knew about him before this happened. He knew his identity coming into this. It’s personal in a way Jason hadn’t yet considered.

He’s starting to sweat a little.

“You’re a regular rags to riches story. You got everything handed to you in one fell swoop.” There are footsteps, and when the light turns on Jason shuts his eyes reflexively because it burns, and when he opens them again, the guy is in front of him. He’s in a slick black suit, with red splash on his chest that’s vaguely bird shaped, and he has a cowl, one that’s kind of a cross between Batman and Kid Flash, with the sharp point on the nose and the lenses, the only part of this guy’s face that’s visible is his mouth and chin, but the top is open like Wally’s only instead of red there’s black hair. It’s wild and windblown; the way Jason’s is after a night of patrol.

The guy slams his hands onto the edges of Jason’s seat, and he feels the guy’s forearms against his legs. He leans in until Jason can feel breath on his face. “So why, after you got all that. Did you have to take the one thing that’s _mine_?”

It hits him like a punch to the face, who this guy is.

Jason’s never officially met him, but he’s heard about him. He’s seen pictures, and in the Batcave, there’s this glass case with the old Robin costume suspended in it. He’s always thought it was creepy, the way Bruce had memorialized the first Robin, as though he was dead even though he wasn’t. But it’s not that the first Robin had stopped breathing, it’s that to Bruce, he is dead. He’s a mistake, a wrong that can’t be righted and so he built the memorial to remind himself every day of that mess-up.

And right now, standing in front of him is that mistake.

“Dick Grayson.” The name just barely makes it past his lips. He hadn’t known before what exactly had happened to his predecessor, for all Jason knew he might have actually died after he’d disappeared. He’s heard whispers that he was still out there, that he’d changed sides. The Team knows what happened to him but they never talk about it. It’s all bitter smiles and clenched fists whenever Robin is brought up, and when Jason had first shown up at the cave in costume, he didn’t know whether they were going to punch him or cry. They all know what happened.

“Oh, so you _have_ heard of me. I’m surprised.” He grins but there is something sick about it.

“Woulda been impossible not to. I’ve been living in your shadow since day one.” He says it before he can decide if it’s a good idea or not, and it’s true. Every time he’s Robin, he’s reminded that he’s _not_ , not really. As far as everyone else in the caped community is concerned, the real Robin is gone.

The only one who hasn’t treated him like he’s a ghost was Red Arrow, the only time they’ve actually met. He’d paused, like he was surprised, but then he gave Jason this half smirk and ruffled his hair in a way that Jason would normally have been pissed about, if he wasn’t just so shocked that there was someone who didn’t immediately cringe at the sight of him. Of course, Red Arrow was and is dealing with some pretty heavy shit, so he hears, so it might have been a fluke.

His heart rate increases exponentially as Dick wraps his fingers around the hilt of what he’s only just now realizing is a short sword, and slides it out of the sheath strapped to his back as he stands back up.

When the tip of the blade touches his chest, his breath hitches, and he knows he’s probably gonna die. And he knows by the unsteadiness of Dick’s hand that he’ll be lucky if it’s quick.

“Are you scared?” Dick asks, face expressionless.

“Why haven’t you taken off your cowl?” Jason asks suddenly, hoping the fact that he is _kind_ of scared isn’t showing too bad in the way his voice shakes. “If you’re gonna kill me the least you can do is look at me while you do it, face to face.”

Dick seems to consider this, before reaching up with his free hand and pulling it back. The eyes he reveals are crystal blue, and they’re angry. So, so angry and Jason knows what it’s like to feel angry.

Dick pushes the sword forward ever so slightly and he feels as the end punctures the front of his uniform, and pushes against his skin. If Dick keeps pushing, it’ll slide between his ribs and into his lung.

“You could have picked any other name. Why did you have to take _mine_?” His voice is less controlled, and Jason can see that anger permeating the surface of Dick’s calm façade.

“Because…because Robin is Batman’s partner.”

“You think that’s all Robin is?!” Dick is yelling now and Jason tries not to breathe too deeply or too fast, so the tip of Dick’s sword doesn’t dig any further into his skin. “You little _rat_. You think you can dress up in those colors and run around Gotham with Batman and that makes you _Robin_?”

“It’s just a name!” Jason bites back, glaring up at his predecessor. “God damn it it’s just a name! You’re not using it anymore so why does it matter!”

In an instant, the sword at his chest is gone and he’s hit so hard across the face he thinks he must have whiplash now. If his tongue wasn’t bleeding before it is now.

“You left Robin behind!” He yells, and he spits the blood from his mouth but it doesn’t really go anywhere, instead just sort of dribbling down his chin.

“It was _taken_ from me!” Dick’s body is so tensed that he’s shaking.

“It’s just a name!” He repeats, because this can’t be it, this can’t be why Dick wants to maim and murder him. Robin is just a name, a role he stepped into after Dick stepped out. Names are a dime a dozen why should this one matter so much to him?

“It’s _my_ name!” The look on Dick’s face is incredulous and he laughs and it’s breathless and pained and horrified all at once. “He didn’t even tell you, did he? Why I picked it?”

“What’s there to know?!” Jason yells back, less cautious now that there’s not a sharp point pressing into his skin.

“It’s the name my mother gave me!” Dick’s voice cracks and Jason clamps his mouth shut. He didn’t know much about this guy at all, but he had googled him once or twice out of curiosity. The only real thing Jason ever actually learned about this guy who had once been his hero, is that he had watched his parents die. Not in the way Jason had watched his mother die, slowly over time so he could get used to the idea. The Graysons had been ripped away from their son in a sudden and violent way.

He probably wouldn’t be so interested if everyone wasn’t so tight lipped about it. Sure when he was little he’d admired Robin, would have loved to _be_ him, the guy was a rock star.

Jason had met him once before, not that Dick would remember. He was probably like ten, and he’d been trying to make a buy for his mom (fucked up, he knows) but the guy had been dissatisfied with the money Jason had presented him. The dealer said if Jason couldn’t pay him, well, Jason would have to be the _payment_. He’s never decided on what that meant, and thankfully he hadn’t had to find out. Robin, _Dick_ , had swept in and knocked the guy unconscious like it was nothing. Jason was a little teary eyed after the whole thing, and Robin had sat with him for ten whole minutes until he’d calmed down, and then walked him home. Before he left he’d put his hand on Jason’s head and smiled at him, and told him he should smile, too. It was okay now.

It was in that moment that Jason decided one day, he was gonna get out of the shithole he’d been living in—he was gonna _be_ something. Robin had only been a kid, but he’d still saved Jason and even though he didn’t have to, he looked after him, even if only for a little while.

Robin had been so nice, and strong and encouraging, even in spite of what Jason has learned about him since. Unlike Batman, and unlike Bruce, Robin hadn’t allowed the loss of his parents to drag him down.

“My mother used to call me Robin.” He grits out, and Jason knows how much pain this guy is in.

“…What happened to you?” He asks, slowly. He can’t reconcile the Robin he met four years ago with this guy, who seems so twisted and dark. Dick looks at him, mouth pressed in a thin hard line. “No one will tell me. I’ve asked and no one ever tells me anything.”

There are a few moments of silence, where Dick smiles and shakes his head like he can’t believe he’s even bothering to talk to Jason instead of cutting him up like deli-meat. “I made a choice.”

“What _choice_?” He really wants to know. He needs to. He has to know how Dick has changed so much. Jason has to understand the way that everyone looks at him, why no one will ever talk about Dick, like he’s a dirty secret to be brushed under the rug.

“I chose not to be the victim.” Dick looks Jason dead in the eyes when he says it.

“Then why are you playing the victim now?” Jason snaps. He calls bullshit. Maybe Dick thinks he’s being his own person, that he’s taking control of whatever life he’s living, but no. _Bullshit_.

Blue eyes are trained on him and he knows he should be careful what he says next but _screw_ that. He is not gonna sit here while someone he used to admire stands there and _lies_ to himself. The Robin he’d met, the one he wanted to be is not who is in front of him now.

“You’re pissed off because Bats gave me your name. Whatever, it means a lot to you I get that. But then why come after _me_? You don’t wanna be the victim then cut the _bullshit_. You came after me and tied me to a fucking _chair_ for what? So you could kill me? So it’d be Bruce’s fault that you _killed_ me? You’re gonna let what he did control what you do now and you wanna tell me that’s not some kinda self-serving self-pitying _bullshit_?” He’s saying bullshit a lot, but he literally can’t think of a better word because it’s all _bullshit_. “You don’t wanna be the victim? Fucking get _over_ yourself and stop _acting_ like one!”

Well, if he dies now at least he knows it was his own fault. Not the result of whatever weird _bullshit_ is going on between Dick and Bruce. There’s that word again, it’s so fucking _applicable_ today.

When Dick doesn’t immediately slaughter him like a pig, Jason swallows a little. He’s really not about the whole _waiting_ thing.

“You’ve got a really big mouth, you know that?” Dick scoffs, running a hand through his hair.

“Yeah, I’ve been told.” Jason says, spitting a mouthful of tongue-blood, and watching with mild irritation when it lands on his leg.

“This is bullshit. All of it is bullshit.” Dick mutters, and Jason is again weirdly proud of himself for introducing this word into the conversation. He is so good at…well, being kidnapped? He guesses? Whatever.

Dick is pacing back and forth in front of him, cycling between furiousness and something that seems a lot like regret, to Jason. Whatever happened to this guy…it had to have been horrible. Dick Grayson had gone missing nearly three years ago, now. And whatever had gone on back then, to take someone who had seemed so together and _happy_ not only when Jason had briefly met him but in all the pictures that Bruce had tried to hide away in a drawer—the ones he’d spent a whole night sifting through—it was still affecting him somehow. Jason wonders if it had been personal, or if it was job related.

Would he be like this one day? Pacing back and forth in front of some brat he’s kidnapped and plans on skinning alive? Would he turn out like Bruce? Never discussing his mistakes and regrets but always, _always_ wearing them on his sleeve in spite of the smiles on his face?

Will he survive long enough to be either?

“This isn’t how my life was going to go.” Dick says suddenly, wiping at his mouth. “I was never gonna be someone who did things like this.” He gestures to the situation before him, the basement or whatever they are in, Dick himself, and of course Jason who is saran wrapped to a chair in the middle of the room. Oh yeah, did he not mention he is  _saran wrapped_ to the chair? No, Dick couldn’t have just used ropes or zip ties like a normal kidnapper.

“Not like I expected to be here either, ya know.” He mumbles, because he hadn’t. He’d always figured he’d end up dying in a nice gutter somewhere. Maybe by some chance he’d grow up and finish high school and then travel a little before dying in a gutter somewhere, but.

“I fully intended to kill you.” Jason doesn’t miss the past tense. “But you… _fuck_ you’re just some stupid kid. Just like I was. Am.”

Jason frowns again.

“Just a couple of stupid kids.”

“Hey, speak for yourself.” Jason flinches, thinking he’s about to be smacked again but Dick just claps a hand on top of his head, not really looking at him but smiling in a way that seems sort of fond. He looks up at his captor, trying to catch his eye, and he realizes Dick doesn’t look quite so angry, anymore, he looks tired. Tired of games, tired of grudges and regret and running. Tired of being tired.

“The first thing I did, when I found out about you, was hop on a plane and come after you. My first instinct was to hang you from the courthouse by your neck.” Oh, thanks, Dick that makes him feel good inside. “I’ve thought for so long I was over things, but. I guess there are some things you can’t move on from, not really.”

“…Kind of a sharer, aren’cha.” Jason’s mouth quirks into a smile when Dick snorts.

“I’ve been told that, once or twice.” Dick takes his hand from Jason’s head and crouches in front of him, so that Dick has to look up at him. “You’re not the problem, here.”

Yeah, because he totally didn’t know that already. Either way, he appreciates the sentiment, don’t get him wrong. “Thanks for noticing.”

Dick laughs again. “I hate to say it, but I kinda like your attitude, kid.”

“Can’t help it, I was born for greatness in all capacities.” He quips, feeling oddly satisfied when Dick laughs again. He…kinda likes Dick’s attitude, too. Ya know, once he gets past the homicidal urges that Jason (Bruce?) seems to inspire in him.

It’s probably Stockholm syndrome, if you can develop it that quickly. Can you? He’ll have to look into that.

A moment or two goes by where Dick’s just sort of smiling at him, and he clears his throat awkwardly. “So, any chance you like my attitude enough to unwrap me?”

Dick’s smile becomes a full on smirk and he stands again. “You really can’t figure out how to escape on your own?”

Jason feels himself blush, his ears are on fire. He’d have a perfect poker face if it wasn’t for his stupid ears and the way they always turned bright—and he does mean _bright_ —red whenever he’s the slightest bit embarrassed. “We’re not all Batman! Besides you took all my stuff!”

Dick laughs again and Jason totally doesn’t pout.

When he raises the sword again, Jason’s heart stops for a moment, before Dick returns it to the sheath on his back, and then grabs a hunting knife from his belt to cut away at Jason’s plastic prison.

Jason is on his feet as soon as he’s able, and stands to face Dick, a little miffed to see he’s actually several inches shorter. Dick raises an eyebrow when Jason doesn’t move. “Are you not going to run off and tell on me?”

“Well.” Jason clears his throat again and crosses his arms. “Since you’ve held me _hostage_ for…how long have I been here?”

Dick shrugs. “Probably like four hours.”

“That all?” Jason mumbles. Seemed longer to him but he was unconscious for a while so who knows. “Anyway yeah since you’ve held me hostage for four hours, I figure you owe me some dinner. Pizza will do. Pepperoni.”

Dick barks out a laugh and looks just so incredibly floored. Jason smirks a little. “You’re really asking me for pizza right now?”

“More like telling.”

“Kid, you’re ridiculous.” Dick shakes his head. “Though… I guess I did bail on my movie night pizza for this.”

He seriously was having a movie night and then just up and decided ‘ _you know? I think I’ll go kidnap and murder someone instead’_? What a piece of work. Jason definitely likes him. “C’mon I’m hungry. Where are we anyway? Can’t still be in Gotham.”

“…Blüdhaven. Actually.”

“That craphole?” He shakes his head. Gotham isn’t exactly a little slice of heaven, but…

“Jason.”

He winces, Dick has only said his name once thus far but he wasn’t talking to him, only about him.

“Why are you staying, really.”

“…” He bites the inside of his cheek. “I…I always wanted to meet you. Ask you…things. Everyone treats me like I’m some knock-off. No one talks to me, not really,” he chances a glance at Dick’s face. “I just…I thought maybe if we ever met that we’d be…friends. That you’d see me differently than Bruce or the Team or the League.”

Dick frowns, and Jason can see something going on in the blue eyes looking down at him. He imagines Dick is thinking about whether or not this is some kind of elaborate rouse on Jason’s part to keep him in one place long enough for Batman to show up and lock him in an eight by ten cell with some guy named Bruno—Jason has to contain a smile. Dick is probably too pretty for prison.

He wonders if Dick is thinking that no, he doesn’t wanna actually hang out with Jason because he _is_ a knock-off. And he thinks maybe Dick’s just protecting himself, because it can’t be easy to be around Jason given the circumstances. But when Dick says:

“Sure. I’ll buy you dinner.”

Jason thinks that Dick must see something in him that’s worth getting to know, the same way that Jason still sees his hero in the man standing before him.

“Sweet.” Jason smiles, and Dick rolls his eyes, and his heart skips a beat, because considering how this all started and despite the fact that he probably has Stockholm syndrome and Bruce is probably flipping his fucking lid right now, being kidnapped is a pretty good way to spend his night.

And besides, he’s gotta do _something_ without Bruce knowing about it at some point. Or what kind of teenager would he be?


	3. Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Roy hates Jade, he really does. Probably.

He swears he’ll kill her.

Every day, he swears it.

The woman is infuriating, she’s miserable, taunting, _evil_ , the whole nine yards. She’s got very, _very_ few redeeming qualities. He can’t stand to be anywhere near her.

And when he thinks she can’t get any worse to be around, she finds a way.

“I don’t see what the problem is with putting broccoli on a pizza.” _Doesn’t see_ —good god.

“Jade, you _can’t_. It’s a terrible idea. Pizza is junk food. You can’t put a vegetable on junk food. It’s wrong.” Roy pinches the bridge of his nose, and swears he’ll kill her. He’s tired. They’ve been fighting about this for longer than he’ll ever admit to.

“Red, you are _so_ dramatic.” She sighs, sounding as exasperated as he feels. “Look. Dick is waiting, how about we just get two pizzas. You two can have your greasy monstrosity and _I’ll_ have chicken and broccoli. Can we agree on that?”

…Alright so maybe he won’t _kill_ her, just maim her a bit. “Fine.”

The clerk behind the counter of the pizza joint they are currently in looks relieved. Honestly, Roy is almost surprised they haven’t been kicked out. Of course, if it were Roy watching the conversation he probably wouldn’t interrupt either. Neither of them were the type of person who took interference well.

After slapping some money down on the counter, they retreat to a booth to wait. “The kid really does look good. He’s gotten tall,” Roy comments, clasping his hands together and resting them on the table.

“Almost as tall as you,” she smirks a little. “He’s doing quite well for himself, actually.” Jade hums and Roy can see the pride in her eyes. It had been a risk for Jade, to take Dick under her wing like she had.

Roy isn’t sure of the specifics on _how_ she knows, but Jade _does_ know what The Light has done to Dick. In all honesty, Roy’s not entirely sure she wasn’t directly involved. However, whatever torture they put him through hadn’t sat well with her. Neither Jade nor Dick himself has ever told Roy exactly what had happened. He could make guesses, based on the scars Dick is covered in, but he will probably never know the details of what those sons of bitches had done to Dick, who was only thirteen years old at the time.

All he knows is that Robin was captured when the Team was investigating a tip about a high-profile robbery, one that had implied connections to the League of Shadows, one that in hind sight had clearly just been a way to lure them out. He doesn’t know if Robin had been the primary target, or if he was just the one that happened to be grabbed. But he highly doubts that they had left anything to chance. Robin had been gone for a week and a half, the Team, the League and Roy himself searching day and night, scouring the Earth for the Boy Wonder.

Batman was contacted a day after Robin had been taken, approached with a ransom of sorts. Robin, for…well, he isn’t sure what the trade was for. Something the League had that The Light desperately wanted back. They sent a new proof of life photo of Robin every day. Batman has never let anyone see them, but based on the way he became increasingly agitated and even desperate, Roy knows they couldn’t have been good.

When the trade was made after eleven excruciating days, Robin was all but dumped back into the hands of his Team. He was with them less than an hour before Batman swept him back to Gotham. It was long enough to deeply worry the Team, and Roy himself. The Boy Wonder had been more or less catatonic, bleeding through haphazardly applied bandages.

He’d run from Gotham two months later and never looked back.

Whatever happened during those eleven days, it was enough that Jade cut ties with the League of Shadows, and in turn The Light.

He thinks that in its self speaks volumes about what Dick had gone through.

For the second time, the League and Team launched an all-out manhunt to find Robin. Roy had contacted Jade to see if she knew anything about where he was, if someone on her side had gone after him again.

She’d found him shortly after. Not that she’d told Roy, he didn’t know for sure where Dick was until the night he barged into their motel room and forced Jade to let him speak to his friend.

Jade had wanted to help him. She’d sought him out, shown him a way to put his trauma behind him, a way to become someone new, someone stronger. Even though he would prefer she hadn’t turned him into a criminal, he’ll always be grateful that she looked after Dick when no one else could. Besides, he’s still young, there is still time for Dick to hop the fence again.

“He’s lucky, to have had you back then.” Roy admits, smiling in a rueful sort of way. “We’re both lucky to have you,” because it’s true.

Sure, Roy hadn’t been tortured by The Light, not in the way Dick had. But finding out that not only had they been using him as a tool, as a means to the Justice League’s and the Team’s end, but that he is a clone of the still missing Roy Harper created specifically for this purpose, it had fucked him up. It had crushed him when he found out. He put all his time and energy and resources into finding that poor kid, the _real_ Roy. But after the first year of coming up empty handed, he cracked under the pressure and guilt and shame. He’d never thought he could feel so low.

And then he stuck a needle in his arm.

The habit had sucked the life out of him at impressive speed. Jade had found him passed out in a puddle of his own piss in an alley in Seattle. He had been weak, strung out and barely breathing. It was the first time she’d seen him in nearly a year—not for lack of trying on her part—and she’d found him with the needle still in his arm.

That had been six months ago, and he’s been clean ever since. Without Jade, he and Dick may never have recovered. Roy is _still_ recovering. Probably always will be, and he thinks the same must be true for Dick.

“You flatter me, Red.” She smirks, but it’s softer, closer to a smile, and she puts her hand on his. She hasn’t left him for any real amount of time since she found him that night. She’s spent damn near all her time forcing him to get his shit together. She’s gone so far as to drag him to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Hell, she’d even called her sister, who in turn called Ollie and Dinah who have made an annoying habit of dropping in every other week (much to his dismay). But despite all that, he has almost slipped a time or two.

There’s just this one thing…he has this memory of the night she’d found him, when they were in the hospital. He isn’t sure if it was real or not, but…

He had woken up; just enough to crack his eyes open and see a white ceiling, to hear the beeping of machines. There was this sound…she was crying over him, sounded so devastated…

He couldn’t ever forget it.

 _Please, Red. Please pull yourself together. Please_.

He leans across the table and kisses her; suddenly a little disappointed Dick is at home waiting for them.

“Harper! Pizzas are up!” The clerk calls. He breaks away from her reluctantly and they get to their feet and retrieve their dinner.

The cab ride back to the apartment isn’t terribly long, and he spends most of it carefully leaning over their pizza with his mouth pressed against Jade’s and their hands are on each other’s faces and tangled in each other’s hair and the cabbie is probably enjoying the view a little too much but Roy doesn’t care.

One day he’ll probably kill her, yeah. But god, does he love her.

It’s only kind of difficult to carry the pizza up the stairs as he and Jade continue to, as Dick might say, ‘suck each other’s faces off’ and he thinks that little brat is just gonna have to enjoy the first _Fast & Furious_ movie by himself because this is definitely going somewhere.

Jade laughs against his mouth as he fumbles for his keys with the hand that isn’t precariously balancing two boxes of pizza. She pulls away, jangling his keys in front of his face before unlocking the door. He gives her ass a good smack as they walk in.

“Oh Dickie~” she purrs, pulling Roy inside by his free hand and closing the door. Roy walks past her and sets the pizzas on his counter before turning back to her and grabbing her by the waist. She hops up wrapping her legs around his torso and he slides one arm around her to hold her up and slips the other hand up the back of her shirt. She pulls her tongue from his mouth and tips her head back, calling for Dick a second time while he sucks a bruise into the skin just above her collar bone.

When there are still no obnoxious comments or sounds of disgust from Dick, Roy stops what he’s doing. He and Jade share a look before she disentangles herself from him and slides down to her feet. “Dick?” Roy calls, suddenly concerned. He’s listening but there’s nothing to be heard. The shower’s not going, there’s no snores coming from his bedroom, no footsteps or signs of life.

It’s too quiet.

Jade wanders off to inspect the bedroom and bathroom, and Roy looks around the living room, and then realizes his laptop is open. The screen has gone dark but he runs his finger along the mousepad to light it up again and feels the blood immediately drain from his face.

_Does Batman Have a New Partner in Gotham?_

Roy pushes his bangs back. _Shit_. “Jade!”

She’s instantly back at Roy’s side, and he watches her as she reads the headline. “I _told_ you that you waited too long to tell him.”

“Jay we have to go after him before he does something stupid.”

“Better suit up then, Red.”

Yeah, he supposes he had better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little side note about what Roy and Jade were up to :)


End file.
